Florida - Part 2

Day 5 - Back to the Magic Kingdom for another 7 hours of fun. No photos though - Rachel has them all on her camera (hint, hint, Rach.)

Day 6 - Dropped Rach at the airport and headed south for the Everglades. Almost 200 miles and 5 hours later, we were on a 2-hour tram tour of Shark Valley. Next up was alligator wrasslin' and an air boat ride into the 'glades

One of the many birds we saw on the Everglades river.

This guy jumped right onto our boat, walking to within an inch of my arm.

before we headed south again, ending up in Key Largo for the night.

Day 7 - drove south through the Keys,

The old 7-mile Bridge, where 'True Lies' was filmed.

making it about half way to Key West (over 70 miles) before turning around and heading to the beach at our hotel. The water is a variety of gorgeous greens and blues, but it's almost impossible to get a picture that reflects that - the land and sea are about the same height and the only elevations are the bridges, inconveniently marked 'do not stop,' not even to take pictures. Tomorrow we fly home from Miami. Looking forward to getting back to our normal routine.

Florida in Pictures - Part 1

Day 1 - travel and Epcot. With Fireworks!
Day 2 - JFK Space Center and the 3D Hubble Telescope movieThen the Magic Kingdom - with more fireworks! Day 3 - Disney/MGM Studios with another 3D movie (Rachel rocks the funky glasses) and the best part - a drawing class (this is my Pluto. And no, I didn't trace it.) Day 4 - hot and humid at Animal Kingdom. Loved the sculpture tree and the jeep ride safari. I think Dick's favorite thing was dinner at the 50's "drive-in" diner while watching (really bad) old sci-fi movies. Thanks for a great idea, Rachel.

FO'ing Along

Finished another shawl, my 5th for the 10 Shawls in 2010 Challenge and another stashbuster since I made it with Rowan Kid Silk Haze I've had since July 2008. I think the beads add just the right touch of pizazz. Details are here.

Also completed an entrelac crochet scarf for a class I'm teaching in May. I've made this before using Noro Silk Garden; this time I used Crystal Palace Mochi Plus, which is much softer and just as colorful as Noro. Project details are here. Love the drape and the texture. This could easily become my new favorite scarf.

Grrrrrr - and an FO

When I blocked my shawl Friday night, I forgot about how curious Lily is (a nicer way of saying she's a pain in the a**.) Usually, I block projects in my craft room where I can shut the door and keep her out. But this shawl was so big I needed more space, hence the living room layout.

And I woke up the next morning to this - my darling little PITA kitten must have spent most of the night carefully pulling out my blocking pins. Can you say 'not amused'?
Despite Lily's assistance, the shawl - #4 in my 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge - has been blocked, photographed and worn. I love how silky cool it feels; love the drape, love the colors. Project details are here and a link to the yarn creator's Etsy store is here. I think this one is going to get lots of wear.

Our Newest Driver

Skateboard day (here) convinced me that Leia needed a wheeled vehicle of her own so she could hang out with the big kids. A kiddy-sized skateboard would have been cute, but I didn't want to be responsible for the injuries you know would have followed; a tricycle was my next thought but, although she's wearing size 3 clothes, 20-month old Leia isn't quite ready for that yet.

But this - was a huge hit. (If you click to enlarge the picture, you can see her bling flower sandals.) From the minute the parts came out of the box, Leia was in love with her car.

We had trouble keeping her out of it long enough for Dick to put the whole thing together (and it fought him the entire way; it wouldn't have been an easy job, even without a 4-year-old helping and a 1-year-old supervising.) When he took a break to run home for a bigger hammer (Isn't that every guy's motto? "If at first it doesn't work, just find a bigger hammer.") I gave in and let Leia ride. There's no door and the steering wheel didn't work but she didn't care. Foot power and grandma steering got her where she wanted to go.
This thing is going to be hours and hours of entertainment for Leia. She's absolutely enthralled with her Cozy Coupe. Almost too much so. When Miles leaned in too close to the car, Leia smacked him in the eye. Poor Miles; he's so sweet and gentle with Leia, it never even occurred to him to retaliate.

When we left, Matt was trying to herd the kids inside and Leia was putting up a fuss at being separated from her treasure. I bet Dick that the car would end up inside along with Leia, rather than in the garage as planned. I won.

Shawl of Giantness

My latest shawl is done and blocking (details here).

Didn't realize how weirdly I blocked this until I saw the crooked pictures.

This thing is huge, well over 900 yards of DK weight cotton yarn. My yarn shop buddies saw it when it was still unblocked and assured me it isn't too big. Let's just say I'm not totally convinced. We'll see tomorrow when it comes up off the blocking board.

UFO Update

Making progress on a couple of UFO's*. A cabled sweater (Ravelry link) from Crochet World, December 2009, made with Valley Yarns 'Northhampton' wool yarn from my stash. Just need to finish the neck (I'm on the third re-do; didn't like how it was in the pattern so I'm making it my own), sew on the buttons, weave in all the ends and I'm done. Hoping to wear this to my crochet class next Tuesday. (Baby hand provided for scale.)
I broke my yarn diet to buy this color-changing cotton. I love how it shades from color to color (brown to banana to orange). I bought the corresponding skein that shades back again so this shawl will go from brown through orange and back to brown. The pattern is Lily Chin's Mock Faroese Shawl that I've made before. I wanted a simple pattern that would allow the yarn to shine - I think this is going to be a winner.

*UnFinished Objects

Leia In Action

Matt sent me videos of Leia building up a tower, then trying to blow it down. I swear that girl is going to be an engineer.

Keeping Me Young

Keeping up with the baby grands is either going to keep me young or send me early to bed, exhausted. I'm betting on the later at this point.
I went over to babysit for a couple of hours and, courtesy of daylight savings time, we spent the entire time outdoors with the kids riding skateboards and Razr bikes and chasing tennis balls. ALL the kids - 19 month old Leia loudly insisted on getting to do everything the big kids got to do. She loved riding the skateboard; the look on her face as she went down the street was pure joy.When Naia got tired of giving Leia rides on the 'board, grandma plopped herself down and away we went. Don't know whether or not to be happy there's no photographic evidence. And after 2 hours of running up and down the cul-de-sac, I'm not the only one who's going to sleep well tonight.

Baby Day

Leia spent last night and today with us. As soon as she was dressed today, she insisted it was time to go for a walk. Nothing we could do dissuaded her - she was adamant she was going outside.

Hurry up, Grandma

Blowing kisses

Off and running

Did you notice Leia's walking around in her socks? She's outgrown her shoes - again - so we stopped at Target to get her a pair of tennis shoes (and sandals; I couldn't resist the ones with sparkly flowers) before heading to the newly remodeled kids play area at the local mall. Leia couldn't believe that all those kids were there just to play with her. She loved anything that had stairs and a slide, going up and down over and over and over again. The girl is fearless.We had one very tired, but happy, baby by the time we headed home.